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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Now that I am transitioning back into technology integration, I have been able to attend some meetings with fellow technology coaches at Heartland AEA. I have joined a Flipped and Blended classroom cohort, and will also be attending NETA this week. From the past month I have learned about some great technology tools for the classroom. This post will showcase some of them.

1. Quizlet Live- Have you ever used Kahoot!? Quizlet Live is for teachers who want to combine the Kahoot! experience with the quizzes they have made from Quizlet. Both programs are highly engaging and help give you formative assessment data.

2. Coggle.it- Have you ever had students complete a concept map? Coggle.it is a newer web tool that will help students create digital concept maps. You can sign up using your school Google accounts and choose the free plan. Below is a video about Coggle:

3. gMath- Google has really expanded their world of technology tools by creating add-ons for the Google Apps for Education. gMath is an add-on for those that need the different mathmatical symbols for their work. If you teach math or science, this add on is really beneficial. You can create a Google Doc that includes math problems and the students can solve them in a Google Doc by themselves or with someone else. Click here to see an example where a Google Sheet can be modified to hold math problems using the gMath tool. Students can also add on gMath to complete their answers. If you would like to give a math quiz using Google Forms, you can use gMath with Forms. Below is a video on how to create a math quiz:

4. Purpose Games- If you want to create games or activities for your students to use for studying your content, this website has a lot of potential. You can even embed a picture on an activity and have students lable the diagram. For instance, if you are teaching the parts of a cell, you can upload a picture of a cell and have the students label the parts of it. There are other games like matching and multiple choice that you can create as well. This site has a large database of premade games that you can utilize as well. Students do not need an account in order to practice and activity. You will give them a sharable link to get them there.

5. Chrome for Reading- Stacy Behmer, a Google innovator and educator, presented at the Iowa 1:1 Conference last week on how to use Chrome to support reading. Click here to view her presentation. If you are interested in these Chrome extensions, let me know. I can help you get them added to your browser. Remember, students at IHS can only access "white-listed" Chrome extensions. I will have all of these added to the official list.

Added Bonus: YouTube channels for Social Studies and Science- I am closely following the ISTE organization and have collected some great resources lately. They recently posted links to articles about YouTube channels. Click here for the Social Studies channels and click here for the Science one.